Al Mukalla: If the international community does not pressure Al Houthis in Yemen, there will be pro-Iranian theocratic regime in Yemen with a Hezbollah-type militia holding the reins of power, the Saudi envoy to the UN, Abdullah Al Mouallimi, has said.
In an opinion piece published in the New York Times on Tuesday, he said that Al Houthis held the key to peace.
“Peace will only prevail if Al Houthi rebels agreed to become a political party and disarm,” he wrote.
He urged the international community to pressure Al Houthis to come to the negotiating table.
“The international community must insist on the full and immediate implementation of Resolution 2216. Iran must refrain from supplying weapons and materials to Al Houthis,” he wrote.
The UN resolution calls for Al Houthis to immediately end their military campaign, release political prisoners and halt its recruitment of child soldiers.
If the rebels are allowed to maintain the status quo, Al Mouallimi warned, it would effectively mean the de facto partition of Yemen.
Saudi Arabia and allied Arab countries intervened militarily in Yemen in 2015 to blunt a lightning expansion by the Al Houthi militia and to reinstall the internationally-recognised president Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
The coalition enabled Hadi’s forces to push rebels from almost 80 per cent of Yemeni land, but much of the northern areas are still firmly under Al Houthi control.
“If the status quo continues, the northern parts of Yemen would be isolated, at odds with Saudi Arabia, its biggest neighbour, and out of step with the region to which it claims to belong. And in southern Yemen, a weak government would take over, giving Daesh and Al Qaida a chance to expand. This part of Yemen would be deprived of natural and human resources, the bulk of which lie in the North. This is not a recipe for sustained peace.”
Al Mouallimi said the Yemeni government has repeatedly tried to revive peaceful negotiations with Al Houthis but to no avail.
“Al Houthis reluctance to share power and hand over arms has torpedoed peace talks repeatedly,” he wrote.
“There has been no shortage of talks. We have had direct talks, indirect talks, public talks, private talks — talks in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Switzerland or Kuwait for more than 100 days,” he said.
Addressing the ideology of the rebel group, Al Mouallimi said that it centres around the belief that power should be in the hands of Iran’s Supreme Leader.
“This is the same ideology that drove them to launch wars six times in the past decade,” he said.
Addressing the world’s worst cholera outbreak unfolding in Yemen, Al Muallami said the problem was exacerbated in areas held by Al Houthis.
“Problems arise from their failures to manage and distribute humanitarian aid and supplies. They refuse to use all of the ports available or the roads for the transfer of aid.”
